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GABF 2015 through the rear view mirror

9/30/2015

2 Comments

 

You wouldn't know it from media reports, but the week is barely about medals.  (Which is a good thing, seeing as how we won none!)

​Loads of you likely have experienced the Great American Beer Festival in Denver and have your own impressions and memories of the hoopla.  Here are some of ours. (Page down if you want to skip to the pictures.)
People seem to begin flying in for beercations the weekend before the festival and some spend some quality time visiting breweries up here in FoCo.  This was a blast (photoless, however) -- meeting brewers and craft beer lovers from all over the country -- and some from further afield (ahem, Carolina & Leo) -- is a joy.  Goofy to say, but if you haven't felt that craft beer joy yet, I recommend sinking your life's work & savings into opening a craft brewery and experiencing how rejuvenated and elated and connected a week like this one makes you feel.   Folks traveling and gathering to share a love of craft is awesome.
​Craft-centric bars throughout Denver and Fort Collins (and, I'm guessing, several other cities) celebrate this week with special tappings of beers from all the heck over the place. Falling Rock Tap House in Denver and The Mayor of Old Town in Fort Collins tapped the last 2 kegs of our Rum Barrel Aged Coconut Porter (inventive name, we realize) on the same night, the Monday before the festival.  The Mayor created Tap Into Northern Colorado (TINC) a couple of years ago and has 100 Northern Colorado breweries' beers on tap for this week, partly so that we can enjoy our local brew scene, and partly so that people coming in from out of town who can't make it to every brewery can try a whopping number of them at The Mayor. Tap & Handle has special tappings each night for a week before the festival. Restaurants around town do all kinds of beer-related events. And, as you might imagine, Denver craft bars & restaurants go to town all week with awesome beers.
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Truth be told, this pic is from last year.  Join the mayhem and sample some fantastic brews at Falling Rock Tap House every night of GABF week!
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Tap Into Northern Colorado at The Mayor of Old Town showcases 100 NoCO beers.
We started our Denver days with a pairing of small plates with LoHi SteakBar on Tuesday night.  
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We might have eaten twice our body weights.  But can you blame us?  Look at it.

Here was the conference that went on at the end of the bar when we got there -- between the staff who put on this amazing dinner every night, the owner, and his son.
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How can you not love a restaurant that prints this?
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​Eat local, people!

We hopped around The Highlands a bit and after a beer at Old Major we made Linsey carry the keg home (the awesome bar manager there was strapped for space as he'd stocked up beer for the week -- we like that kind of full fridge and kicked-keg-filled hallway).
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[In real life, Luke helped.]
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Thursday & Friday we had awesome brunch pairings at The Lobby (and got to crash a fellow's bachelor party,which he was having with some H&D).
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Side note:  we met up with some long-time friends who where passing through from Cleveland.   Hi Greens!
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​Throughout the week we got to visit great craft beer spots with fantastic food, and all were filled with folks celebrating this Week of Craft Beer in Denver.  Too cool!  It was crazy awesome to see our beer pouring at some of the places we've admired for their craft lineup for forever.  Huge thanks to those Denver bars who were willing to pour some H&D during GABF week!
​


We were a little gawker-ish in the Big City:
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Hey, are you by chance attending a beer festival?
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Vanimal's big day out.
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The Big Blue Bear would like in too, plz.
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.Cool to run into a couple of Weldwerks Brewing fellows on the walk downtown
Setting up our booth was fun and dead easy.
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[We were greeted by our neighbors' "big-ass" sign behind us, though.  Kinda' sad it's in 90% of our photos!]
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​The session opens each day with a bagpipe procession from the "opening gates" -- very cool!
Here they were coming by the booth a few minutes later:
The GABF sessions were a scene.  I'm a bit low on the people-watching photos, but here you go for a few:
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Some of our favorite FoCo peeps.
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Great tee.
In addition to a medal for Friar Chuck, Black Bottle Brewery wins for best-dressed.
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We love these FoCo peeps!
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Happy birthday, Titus!
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Love this, too.  From Monument, natch.  
​Where people are very focused.
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Now THAT'S a pretzel necklace!
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​Tiffany & Ryan, of William Oliver's Publick House fame, might have found my phone at some point.
If you go, you must MUST go dance at the silent disco.  Ohmigosh.  From either side of the fence it is the best thing at GABF.  
Gitcherself there.
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The Colorado State Legislature brews 2 beers (one by the House, one by the Senate) and if you visit the Colorado Brewers' Guild booth, y'all can sample each, meet a rep or two, and vote on which one you prefer.  I voted with the House this year, but I believe the Senate beer won.  Both were great!  Kudos to Cannonball Creek Brewing Company & Big Choice Brewing for brewing with these cats.
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Fair warning that y'all want to empty your bladders before you enter GABF.  
​(And about time that this is the ratio at the restroom lines in a public place, am I right, ladies?)
Taken from the back of the men's room line 2 hours in.  See the "MEN" sign off there in the distance?
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Taken from the back of the women's room line
​2 hours in.
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We got to pour in the "Meet the Brewer" section (by lottery) and were psyched to staff our booth for all 4 sessions.  Here are Linsey & Titus holding down the fort, and Chad, Tim & Luke putting in some hard time.
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​We might have been a bit tired between the 2 Saturday sessions.  
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"Who's the creepy family passed out behind the palm fronds?"
We weren't alone. Here's what the brewers' space out the door of the main hall looked like at 5pm on Saturday.  
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This place was an oasis.  You could step out of the fluorescent lighting and massive white-noise-din of the exhibition hall into this sanctuary of natural sunlight & relative silence.  One woman who walked out with us said, "Oh my gosh, I feel like I just walked out of prison!"
Yes, there was the bottling and submission of beers for judging weeks and weeks before (and yes, I should know the actual date!  Alas.).  In our case, that involved submitting the freshest batches of beer we had and sending them off with several other FoCo breweries' submissions in Snowball (Snowbank's delivery van -- many thanks to them for delivering!).  Luke then delivered kegs for pouring samples a couple of weeks ago.  We sat through the awards ceremony crossing fingers during our own categories (to no avail!) but also being so psyched that so many friends and acquaintances throughout the industry took home some hardware for their hard work, and celebrating the fact that so many states were represented in the medals.  The craft revolution is well and truly upon us and folks all over the U.S. are making great beer!

Here's how sad we were to head back to the last 2 sessions medal-less:
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​With not-much-sleep and loads of standing-on-concrete, we were pretty happy to return to our "normal" lives up here in FoCo.  But we wouldn't trade the week for anything.  
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AFTER
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It's loud, long, and a lot o' concrete-standing.  But it's full of awesome people & beer!  
Cheers to all those who love and support craft beer,
whether by making it, serving it, or drinking it. 
How great it is to have a festival together
​celebrating all of that!
Plus, how often do you get to see
​sharks getting off an escalator?  
Worth the price of admission.
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2 Comments

Watershed!

7/15/2015

3 Comments

 
It’s possible visitors appreciate the amazingly tasty water of Fort Collins more than those of us who live here do, but every now and then, when you’ve worked up a powerful thirst in one way or another, don’t you just dig on a glass of water straight from the tap?  We are grateful for it every single day.  (It’s not too shabby brewed into beer, either, as 16 breweries and counting -- and a bunch of us who enjoy their product -- can attest.)

If you’re a resident of FoCo, you can sign up for a free, full-day guided tour of the Poudre River watershed.  The City of Fort Collins Utilities group runs 2 of these tours each summer.  (The second one for this summer is currently full, but if you follow Utilities on Facebook, you’ll see the announcement for signups next spring and we vote you go!)

TimCo and I went yesterday, and it was startlingly beautiful and educational.  Presenters were excellent – in addition to having it brought home that we're glad typhoid outbreaks are less common now than in days of yore, we learned a lot about the history of settlement and water usage in the Poudre Canyon, how the health of rivers is measured and monitored, and why we are so lucky to have this close-to-pristine water source (this was a point reiterated by every presenter). 

Here’s the day in photos.








Lucas Mouttet started us off with a quick lecture.  Happily, no test.
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Then we got in a giant comfy coach and headed up to Overland Trail Road, passing the original Fort Collins waterworks building.
Journeyed up the canyon along this beautiful, wild thing while hearing from Clyde about the history of water use/rights/work on the Cache la Poudre River.
Arrived here:
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...and were greeted by this guy:
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(We might have taken a few photos of him:)
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(...and of ourselves:)
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There were cool and informative mini-lectures (by water, bug, and tree specialists Clyde, Alicia, and Hallie -- I'm pretty sure they were things like irrigation management and infrastructure and cold-water macroinvertebrate and sub-alpine forestry experts, but hopefully "water, bug & tree specialists" works when reviewing over a #freshtastycraftbeer).
We explored these topics:
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I was slightly hung-up on the bounty of flowers in the natural garden up there, including the amazing Colorado state flower, the Rocky Mountain Columbine.





And, hey, does anyone know what these are?
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Also admired this perfect tree, which I thought was our state tree (Blue Spruce) but I'm pretty sure the evergreen expert would disagree, given that apparently they don't grow up there.  It's beautiful, at any rate.




Let's just take a moment and be glad we are not living on Cameron Pass when the snow is being measured against this post, shall we?
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We broke for lunch (provided by the City group).  Here was our view of runoff in action.  Yeah, yeah, Ma Nature, whatcha' got for me today?
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...and had lunch to this soundtrack.  Not bad.
I ate sitting next to this thing, which I'm pretty sure is producing a grain that can be malted.  Just saying.
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We boarded the bus again and got another couple o' pieces o' education (on stormwater and water quality) from Chris & Jill & then arrived at the Gateway Natural Area.  Folks split up and explored a bit (we walked took a pic of some of Greeley's water in a very non-natural formation:)
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On the way past Mishawaka, we saw these guys from Mountain Whitewater Descents.  [Shameless commercial plug:  we sure hope they are stopping for a #PicnicRockPaleAle at Paddler's Pub when they're done on the river!]
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Amen to a fantastic clean water source, and to public lands which we can all explore (with care, please! We're all drinking that stuff!)!
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(Big thanks to the City of Fort Collins Utilities team -- and particularly to our emcee, Lucas, for a great day!)
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3 Comments

Why Fort Collins?

12/12/2012

1 Comment

 
“Fort Collins?! Aren’t there already plenty of craft breweries there?” This was the response we got (and are still getting) from many people about our decision to move back here to establish the Horse & Dragon. Believe me, we know about the abundance of craft breweries here — we have watched them spring up and grow (and we’ve contributed a fair amount to their bottom line) for the past 20 years — and we know there are many more on the way. We think this is a huge plus — it is a part of why Colorado remains a great market for craft beer growth. There’s still a huge number of beer drinkers who haven’t yet discovered the incredible world of craft beer. And there are plenty of drinkers-of-other-beverages who we think need to be coaxed on over into this incredible world of taste, fun, and community. At the same time, there’s a base knowledge here in Fort Collins and around the state about craft brews that enables all of us to present our products with a great chance of at least some level of acceptance and willingness to give them a try. Best of all, there’s a willingness on the part of those already in the business to aid and abet those of us opening new breweries. In the past 24 hours, TimCo has met with 2 established brewers who could NOT be more helpful, positive, and welcoming. In the past few months, several other brewers, bar owners, and other business folk have been ever-so positive and willing to help. The experience is reminiscent of stories we heard about living in the pioneer west — people and communities coming together to help each other make their way and further knit together for mutual benefit and enjoyment. We’re so glad this sense of community and willingness to help still exists, and to be entering a part of the beer industry where it’s on display every day. Look around at what your local craft brewery is doing for your community. I’ll bet it’s something substantial — economically or psychologically.

And then, of course, there’s this reason to move back to Colorado:


Picture of TimCo in the river with forest and aspen turning gold in the background.
1 Comment

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    ...is the dragon's wanderings through the world of craft beer. It may be hard to follow. This is best read with a great microbrew at hand!

    Categories

    All
    Anniversary
    Barleywines
    Beer Pairing
    Belgians
    Big Beers
    Biking
    Blizzard
    Book Trust
    Brewers' Olympics
    Brewing
    Buildout/Planning/Tanks
    Cans Vs. Bottles
    Charities
    Colorado
    Community
    Construction
    Craft Beer
    Craft Beer & Community
    Craftbeerfolkisgoodfolk
    Craft Beer Folk Is Good Folk
    CSU
    Earth Day
    Festivals
    Fire Captain Irish Red Ale
    Firefighter Community Compassion Fund
    Fish Restaurant & Market
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    FOCO Cafe
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    Freshtastycraftbeer
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    House That Beer Built
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Thank you to the ~200 web designers a year who spam us to let us know our website is "outdated" and "not up to par with our competitors'" -- we are happy with the DIY version and saving pennies to invest in our people.  No need to contact us.  Cheers!

​​
Horse & Dragon Brewing Company   ••  124 Racquette Drive  ••  Fort Collins, CO  80524  ••  970-689-8848
For bar/restaurant/liquor store beer orders, please contact Luke Margheim, 970-980-6564; LukeM@hdbrew.com